Folding umbrella

That’s precisely the problem we are facing today. We need to look forward. I was also the chief minister for 15 years. We lost heavily. The quality of education is very bad.You tell me, what the Congress should do next?We need to seriously introspect. Your thoughts?This is a very legitimate question.Back to Delhi politics. He needs to take Delhi seriously. The roads are in a very bad shape. He can bring in a new way of thinking to run the party affairs. He said he considers you as his mentor and you are like a mother to him. But in reality there is filth all across the city. His popularity has drastically dipped in Delhi.Sheila Dikshit, three-time Delhi chief minister, says that it was high time the Congress Party introspects and makes course corrections for better results in future elections.Back to elections. I am happy with all that I have done for the city. This is the right time when he can give new direction to the party. State party chief Ajay Maken said ever since he took charge of the party’s local unit two years ago, both you and your son, Sandeep Dikshit, who is a two-time MP, have been criticising him. He has failed because he is a dramatist.09 per cent in the municipal polls. He is in no way my competitor. We need to be more critical about the BJP’s policies.How you look at UP CM Adityanath Yogi’s model of governance?He has China Wholesale Custom Tents Manufactures been there for less than two months. Was it the failure of the Opposition to take on the BJP in the local elections?Yes. It will unfair to judge him at this juncture. I do not know what these committees are doing. Many within the party also want so. We see "Swachh Bharat" only in advertisements.

The BJP is gaining just by using its marketing skills.Anyone is free to console himself or herself by these figures. What’s gone is gone..Your take on Mr Kejriwal’s performance. And we need to connect with the people.Do you think lack of leadership at the top is responsible for party’s successive defeats?Not at all! You have pradesh committees for local elections. What is more important is what we will be doing next to win the Lok Sabha elections in UP. If a young person, that too a former minister, is quitting the party that is bound to make some difference.Why did the Congress perform so badly?I was told that the candidates were selected scientifically after taking proper feedback from our workers. Is chief minister Arvind Kejriwal following this mode of governance?Not at all! He has started some mohalla committees.The civic poll results are very disappointing. These are the issues that need to be prioritised. We were not aggressive enough to expose the BJP’s 10-year failure in the three municipal bodies.Why is your party losing one election after another?We are going through crisis of identification with people.Your take on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi election results. It was Indira Gandhi who brought in Green and White revolutions, which were the requirements of that era. Also, Barkha Singh’s leaving the party and criticising the leadership did send wrong signals before the elections. He never wrote any letter to me to campaign for our candidates. But the most important thing is how you reach out to people.The health infrastructure is in a mess. They went about highlighting our 15-year good governance model in Delhi, but there was no face of any person who was part of the governance model and overall development of the city.

Though we were not expecting to sweep all three municipal bodies, but the outcomes of the polls are very scary. We can’t deny it. He could not get even a single seat in Goa. He was always busy outside Delhi.Given a chance, would you again lead the Delhi Congress?Not at all! I was the state unit chief. The phase of the Congress losing and the BJP winning elections will definitely come to an end. It is high time that we introspect to see how we can improve. We also lost security deposits in 92 municipal wards. And he just wants to break old rules.Do you have any advice for Mr Maken?Nothing. We have lost the connect with people. We need to ask the BJP, where are two crores jobs? Has the government deposited `15 lakhs in each citizen’s bank account?As CM of Delhi, in your first interview, in 1998, you had said it’s very important for any effective government to involve citizens in its day-today governance.Do you think, this is high time Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi should take charge of the party?Yes, he should. Also, he can infuse fresh energy in our cadres. Their heads are responsible for defeats in Assembly and civic elections. But they are talking about gau raksha and things that have no relevance for a common man. The decision of the three to join the BJP did create some negative impact on the party’s performance in civic elections. No one was happy about the way the MCD was ruled by the BJP during the last 10 years.You were projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate before the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Just before the polls, it entered into an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the poll results were disastrous for both the alliance partners. I was not asked by anybody to campaign in civic elections.Do you attribute the BJP’s successive victories to the Modi wave?There is definitely some kind of a wave.There’s a view that the vote share of the Congress has gone up from nine per cent in 2015 Assembly elections to 21.

After Independence, it was the Congress party that made today’s India. We need to reconnect with them. We could have aggressively highlighted this. He lost badly in Punjab.Do you think Arvinder Singh Lovely’s, Amit Malik’s and Barkha Singh’s decision to quit the Congress to join the BJP just before the polls contributed to the party’s humiliating defeat?Lovely’s decision to join the BJP definitely created a dent in the party’s votebank in East Delhi. It is true that decisions are taken in consultation with the party high command, but these heads carry out the day-to-day activities. He has been vice-president of the party for a long time. That’s where we failed. In an interview with Sanjay Kaw, she said the most worrying thing was that the party has lost the connect with people. Now, people have realised that he has not delivered on his promises.I think he is trying to mislead people. There is no electricity in UP.In your first ever interview after talking over as the Delhi Congress president, you had said it was very important for any party’s survival to remain connected with the workers at the grassroots level. Had we won, then increase in vote share would have been of some importance to us.It is for everyone to see how Mr Kejriwal is performing. We also have to bring in policies, regardless of caste, colour and creed, which will directly connect us with the masses. He also said he has never said anything against you and Sandeep. But the moot point is that political parties contest elections to come to power.